An alternative way to explore and explain the mysteries of our world. "Published since 1985, online since 2001."

1

Search Our Site

Interview-Alternate Perceptions Magazine, April 2018

An interview with novelist Rebekkah-Ford

by: Brent Raynes

Bio: Rebekkah Ford grew up in a family that dealt with the paranormal world. Her parents Charlie and Geri Wilhelm were the directors of the UFO Investigator's League in Fairfield, Ohio. They also investigated ghost hauntings and Bigfoot sightings in addition to extraterrestrial cases. Growing up in this type of environment and having the passion for writing stories is what drove Rebekkah at an early age to write tales dealing with the paranormal world. Her fascination with the unknown is what led her to write the Beyond the Eyes trilogy, its companion Tangled Roots, and Ameerah. She also has a fantasy novel with paranormal elements in the tale called, Legends of Deceit.

Rebekkah Ford is an entrepreneur and digital nomad in the making and believes we weren’t born to just pay bills and die. She currently resides in rural North Dakota, in a farming community of about 1,800 people. She has an irreverent sense of humor, loves coffee, and yummy food makes her happy. She also loves adventure, books, history, antiques, animals, and connecting with her fans and other authors.

Brent Raynes: I was ecstatic to recently discover you on Facebook after all of these years. You and your sister Angel were cute little girls back when I last saw you two in the mid-1970s. Your mom and dad at the time, Geri and Charlie Wilhelm, living in Fairfield, Ohio, were prominent UFO and paranormal investigators and I was a guest in your home for nearly the whole summer of 1975, as I shared a deep interest in UFOs and other weird stuff too, and as I was from Maine being in Ohio gave me a chance to meet people and visit locations that I otherwise would not have been able to have done so. Meanwhile, having parents who possessed such interests gave you exposure to subject matter that you could incorporate into your fictional writing, correct? If you would, please share with us how that childhood subject exposure influenced you and, of course, tell us about your fictional books. I understand you've got six published now and you've got something of a following.

Rebekkah-Ford: Thanks Brent for the chance to be in your wonderful magazine and possibly connect with like-minded people. Yeah, I was taken by surprise when I discovered your message on my Facebook author page. I knew who you were right away and was thrilled you reached out to me. Even though I was only two years old in 1975, I do have vague memories of you staying with us. My parents used to talk fondly about you throughout my childhood which I suppose helped preserve the memory of your stay in my conscious mind. On the matter of the exposure I had regarding the paranormal world due to my parent’s interest and involvement while growing up, it does definitely play a huge part in my fiction writing. It’s because I’m fascinate by the unknown, and my interest, knowledge, and experience aid me in my tales of the supernatural world. My Beyond the Eyes trilogy is about a lonely, gifted teenage girl named Paige Reed who becomes the target of dark malevolent beings who can possess soulless humans and walk among society masquerading as one of us. They’re dark spirits, and they can be anyone—your next door neighbor, your teacher, the hot girl you met at a nightclub. They’re hedonistic and can live whatever life they desire. Once they decide to move on, they can vacate the vessel. However, there are immortals who try to protect humanity from these mischievous entities. They can cast them out and so forth. Paige is the only one in the world who can help the leader (the “old” one) of these dark spirits find King Solomon’s magical ring and incantations that will allow the wearer to control all of the dark spirits and essentially become God to our world. The “old” one has been looking for those two items for thousands of years and discovered Paige can find them for him. In a nutshell, the trilogy is about good and evil, loyalty, friendship, and love. Since I adore history, I have interwoven it within all my tales. For example, King Solomon supposedly had a magical ring that could control demons and one of his temples was built by them. It’s fantasy, however, Solomon’s magical ring is considered history to some. The next book after my trilogy (Tangled Roots) is a companion to it. Ameerah is next, and her story is a spin-off to the trilogy. Ameerah is a dark spirit who was a lesbian flapper gal in the 1920s and was wrongfully committed to an insane asylum where she was brutally murdered in the 20s. She made an appearance in book two (Dark Spirits) and three (The Devil’s Third) in the trilogy. You don’t need to read the trilogy first in order to read Ameerah. It’s her tale on how and why she chose to become a dark spirit. I love Ameerah. She’s a great character. My husband loves all of my books, but he thinks Ameerah is the best one. After Ameerah, I decided to write something totally different, so I wrote a fantasy novel (Legends of Deceit) with paranormal elements in it. LOD is my sixth published book. I’m almost done with the first rough draft to the second book in this two-book series. Oh, and by the way, the ebook to Beyond the Eyes—the first book in the trilogy—is free here >
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/178oQFt

Rebekkah-Ford: Books I suppose. I love to read, and I wanted to create my own stories to entertain myself and others as well.

Brent Raynes: So what's next?

Rebekkah-Ford: After the book I’m currently working on is published, I have a novella in mind I’d like to write—something totally different and controversial. However, Ameerah has been bugging me, so I might revisit my trilogy and do something else with it. I have fans who would love for me to continue it, and I left the story wide open in an Indiana Jones type of way, so the storyline wouldn’t get stale.

Brent Raynes: What have been some of your greatest literary inspirations?

Rebekkah-Ford: George Orwell, Anne Rice and Stephen King. They’re not the greatest literary works of all time, however, their stories inspired me to write while I was a kid and took my imagination to a whole new level that then branched off into different realms that I created myself, and it continues to grow and thrive. It’s endless, and I love it.

Brent Raynes: If someone asked you for suggestions on how they might become a writer, how would you guide them?

Rebekkah-Ford: I would tell him or her to read. A lot. In order to be a good writer, you need to be a reader as well. I’d tell him to write something he was passionate about, otherwise he’d lose interest and would eventually abandon his story. I’d tell him the more he wrote, the better he’d become. It’s deliberate practice. I’d also advise one to join a writing group so he could learn from others and build relationships with fellow authors.

Brent Raynes: What is the downside in writing?

Rebbekah-Ford: The whole thing is a long process. I know there are authors who write twelve books a year. I don’t know how they do it, but for me it’s either two or one book a year. Lately, it’s been one book a year because I have other projects going as well, and I work full-time outside of home.

*********************

Sign up for Rebekkah’s newsletter to be notified of upcoming releases, contests, get sneak peeks into her characters, and exclusive chances to be entered into drawings only for her subscribers.